Rules of Bopomofo

The Rules of Bopomofo

Hopefully you are getting good at remembering the 37 Bopomofo. This lesson will cover all the rules you need to read them correctly. By the end of today you should have the entire system down!

The Basic Rules

combination initials – Can appear only at the beginning of a syllable.

independent initials – Can appear alone, or at the beginning of a syllable.

medials – Can appear alone, or at the beginning, middle, or end of a syllable.

independent finals – Can appear alone, or at the end of a syllable.

combination final – Can appear only at the end of a syllable.

lone character – Can only appear alone.

Just as in English, the names of the symbols are not exactly the same as the sound they make in combination. The name of ㄅ is “buh”, but in a syllable it just makes the “b” sound, and so on. Combination characters never appear alone, so their “Bopomofo Song” name is only used in spelling, never in pronunciation.

The Tones

Chinese is a tonal language. That means that the pitch you use to say a word can change what that word means.

The Five Special Rules

Usually, words made of two or three Zhuyin characters are just the sum of their parts. However, there a few exceptions to this:

Special Rule 1:

ㄓ, ㄔ, ㄕ and ㄖ Change in Combination

Special Rule 2:

ㄗ, ㄘ and ㄙ Also Change in Combination

Special Rule 3:

ㄢ Sounds Different After ㄧ and ㄩ

Special Rule 4:

ㄣ and ㄥ Sound Different After ㄧ

Special Rule 5:

ㄨㄥ Sounds Different in Threes

Rule 1: ㄓ, ㄔ, ㄕ and ㄖ Change in Combination

The ㄓ symbol makes a “jrr” sound when it is by itself, but a simple “j” sound when it is followed by another symbol. It’s like in English, where the letter “A” is pronounced “eh-yi” in the Alphabet Song, “uh” when it stands alone, and “aah” when it leads off a word like “apple”. You probably won’t get confused with ㄓ and accidentally say “jrooh” instead of “jooh” (though I do sometimes hear Taiwanese pronounce “apple” as “eh-yi-ple”). This characteristic is also found in the letters “ㄔ”, “ㄕ”, and “ㄖ”.

+

=

(Bopomofo)

jrr

+

ooh

=

jooh

(English)

jr

+

wu

=

ju

(Yale)

zhi

+

wu

=

zhu

(Pinyin)

+

=

(Bopomofo)

chrr

+

ooh

=

chooh

(English)

chr

+

wu

=

chu

(Yale)

chi

+

wu

=

chu

(Pinyin)

+

=

(Bopomofo)

shrr

+

ooh

=

shooh

(English)

shr

+

wu

=

shu

(Yale)

zhi

+

wu

=

shu

(Pinyin)

+

=

(Bopomofo)

rirr

+

ooh

=

rooh

(English)

r

+

wu

=

ru

(Yale)

ri

+

wu

=

ru

(Pinyin)

Rule 2: ㄗ, ㄘ and ㄙ Also Change in Combination

The ㄗ symbol makes a “dzeuh” sound when it is by itself, but drops it’s vowel sound to make “dz-” when it is followed by another symbol. ㄘ (tseuh) and ㄙ (seuh) follow the same pattern.

+

=

(Bopomofo)

dzeuh

+

ai

=

dzai

(English)

dz

+

ai

=

dzai

(Yale)

zi

+

ai

=

zai

(Pinyin)

+

=

(Bopomofo)

tseuh

+

ai

=

tsai

(English)

tsz

+

ai

=

tsai

(Yale)

ci

+

ai

=

cai

(Pinyin)

+

=

(Bopomofo)

seuh

+

ai

=

sai

(Bopomofo)

sz

+

ai

=

sai

(Bopomofo)

si

+

ai

=

sai

(Bopomofo)

The sole exception to this is when they are followed by the character ㄜ. Then you keep the full pronunciation of ㄗ/ㄘ/ㄙ, and just tack ㄜ onto the end.

+

=

(Bopomofo)

dzeuh

+

uh

=

dzeuh-uh

(English)

dz

+

e

=

dze

(Yale)

zi

+

e

=

ze

(Pinyin)

+

=

(Bopomofo)

tseuh

+

uh

=

tseuh-uh

(English)

tsz

+

e

=

tse

(Yale)

ci

+

e

=

ce

(Pinyin)

+

=

(Bopomofo)

seuh

+

uh

=

seuh-uh

(English)

sz

+

e

=

se

(Yale)

si

+

e

=

se

(Pinyin)

The differences between the soundsㄗ/ㄘ/ㄙ, and ㄗㄜ/ㄘㄜ/ㄙㄜ, are easily the most subtle differences of any pairs of syllables in the entire Chinese language! For more clarification, you might try asking a few native speakers to pronounce both sets of sounds, so you can practice hearing the difference for yourself.

Rule 3: ㄢ Sounds Different After ㄧ and ㄩ

Usually, the character ㄢ is pronounced “on”, but if it appears in the same word as ㄧ or ㄩ, it is pronounced “-en”.

Bopomofo

English

Yale

Pinyin

on

an

an

wan

wan

wan

bahn

ban

ban

dahn

dan

dan

yen

yan

yan

jee-en

jyan

jian

chee-en

chyan

qian

see-en

syan

xian

ü-en

ywan

yuan

jü-en

jywan

juan

chü-en

chywan

quan

sü-en

sywan

xuan

Rule 4: ㄣ and ㄥ Sound Different After ㄧ

Usually, the characters ㄣ and ㄥ are pronounced “un” and “ung”, respectively. But if they appear in the same word as ㄧ, they drop their vowel sounds, becoming “-n” and “-ng”.

Bopomofo

English

Yale

Pinyin

un

en

en

wun

wen

wen

bun

ben

ben

dun

den

den

een

yin

yin

jeen

jin

jin

cheen

chin

qin

seen

syin

xin

Bopomofo

English

Yale

Pinyin

ung

eng

eng

wung

weng

weng

bung

beng

beng

dung

deng

deng

eeng

ying

ying

jeeng

jing

jing

cheeng

ching

qing

seeng

sying

xing

Rule 5: ㄨㄥ Sounds Different in Threes

In characters with (-)ㄨㄥ, like ㄉㄨㄥ, ㄊㄨㄥ, and ㄓㄨㄥ, the ㄨㄥ changes from wung (ooh + eng) to “-ong”. So the above characters become “dong”, “tong”, and “jong”.

+

=

(Bopomofo)

duh

+

wung

=

dong

(English)

d

+

weng

=

dong

(Yale)

d

+

weng

=

dong

(Pinyin)

+

=

(Bopomofo)

tuh

+

wung

=

tong

(English)

t

+

weng

=

tong

(Yale)

t

+

weng

=

tong

(Pinyin)

+

=

(Bopomofo)

jrr

+

wung

=

jong

(English)

jr

+

weng

=

jong

(Yale)

zhi

+

weng

=

zhong

(Pinyin)

Congratulations!

And that’s it! You now know the phonetic alphabet of Chinese. You can impress all the Chinese-speaking people you meet with your excellent pronunciation! You can also impress any Taiwanese you meet with your knowledge of Bopomofo!

Today’s Quest

This time, you’re going to try to complete all of the Phase I Flashcards. Start by reviewing Categories 1-5 from yesterday. Once you’ve got the hang of those, read Special Rule #1, add the “Special Rule #1” Category to your “Categories to Study” list, and train them until they are all “Active”. Continue this process until you’ve mastered all 5 Special Rules, and no more New or Due cards remain.

Every. Day.

To cement them into your memory, be sure to review your Phase I flashcards every day for at least the next two weeks. If you commit to clearing out all the “Due” cards every single day, you should have both the characters and sounds mastered in no time!

Tomorrow, we’ll use our new knowledge of ㄅㄆㄇㄈ to read (and correctly pronounce) a whole mess of useful Chinese phrases!